Young Welsh fly-half likely to keep Toby Flood out of side again in Tigers'
biggest game of season against French rivals who are on 74-win home run
since 2009

The soaring status of Owen Williams in the Leicester Tigers squad will be underscored with a starting place ahead of Toby Flood as the Premiership club aim to create history by ending Clermont Auvergne’s 74-game winning streak at the Stade Marcel Michelin in the Heineken Cup quarter-final on Saturday.

As recently as last November, the overriding target for Williams, a low-profile recruit from Llanelli Scarlets last season, was to seize the opportunity of a rare start for Leicester in the LV Cup.

It was his role for the Scarlets in that competition in February last year, when he kicked seven penalties on what was just his third start for the Welsh region in a thrilling 40-19 home victory over the Tigers, that first caught the eye of Leicester’s director of rugby Richard Cockerill.

Cockerill signed him later that season to bolster the fly-half resources following George Ford’s decision to move to Bath.

Such has been the outstanding progression of the 22-year-old Welshman, who began the season as third choice fly-half behind Flood and Ryan Lamb, that he is now expected to be thrust into the biggest game of Leicester’s season.

Having spearheaded Leicester’s ferocious victory over Northampton Saints on Saturday, kicking six goals out of six including a touchline conversion, Cockerill suggested on Tuesday that he would continue to displace Flood, the club captain, on Saturday.

Furthermore, Cockerill asserted Williams had proved himself ready for an international call-up for Wales’s tour of South Africa this summer.

“When we signed Owen – and we say this to all the guys who come here – if you are better than the blokes we have, you will play,” said Cockerill. “He has been better, and he has played. It is easy to pick on reputation but Owen is playing in a very good side at the top end of the game.

"He is the only Welsh fly-half playing in a Heineken Cup quarter-final at the weekend. We would like to think we are as good as the Scarlets or Ospreys, where the other two Wales 10s come from, and you would like to think he would get an opportunity [on the international stage] if he keeps playing as he is.”

Williams seized his chance last month after Flood, who is to join Toulouse next season, had failed to impress in games against Worcester and Gloucester. Williams started the next four Premiership games as Leicester surged up the table into third place with four successive wins.

“We played Owen after that and he controlled field position, he has also kicked his goals and that was important at the weekend,” Cockerill added. “While 10 per cent is looking to the future, in the here and now we have played better with him at 10 and are picking him on form.”

While Clermont’s remarkable winning run at home stretches back to 2009, Cockerill has challenged his players to write a new chapter in the Premiership club’s illustrious history by bringing it to an end on Saturday.

Leicester have form in such matters, having become the first side to defeat Munster at Thomond Park in the Heineken Cup back in 2007 at the same stage of the tournament.

“We’re going there with the mindset that it’s a great opportunity for us,” Cockerill said. “It’s probably the toughest place to go in a quarter-final, but that is our own fault because we didn’t win at Ulster. But these things give us the opportunity to make some history with their home record.

“It’s like going to Thomond Park in 2007. They will lose that record at some point, why can’t it be on Saturday at 5pm? Like all sides they’re vulnerable on their day. For once the expectation isn’t on us. We’re expected to get beaten so we can go there with the shackles off and play. Montpellier are the top team in the Top 14 and we beat them home and away in the pool stages. Maybe that’s a good omen for us.”

Cockerill has first-hand knowledge of the pressures that come with maintaining a winning streak when he was part of the Leicester side that went established a 57-game unbeaten run from 1997 to 2002.

“We know ourselves sometimes you worry more about not losing than winning and they have the pressure of a home quarter-final in the Heineken Cup and also the pressures of losing the final last year [to Toulon],” Cockerill added.

“But we are putting some pressures on ourselves to get a result. If we win it would be a huge result in the history of the club.

“We are happy to go anywhere and have a crack at sides but know how difficult it is going to be. We are going to have to be as good as we can and they are going to have to be a little bit off, so we will see.”